A cross-party group of MPs has made a formal complaint over a campaign against
gaming machines in betting shops being run by a leading Liberal Democrat
donor.

The All Party Betting and Gaming Committee has taken issue with a “materially misleading” publicity drive by Derek Webb, who made almost £15m in the casino industry but is now leading an attack on bookmakers.

Having dubbed the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in the shops the “crack cocaine of gambling”, Mr Webb took out advertisements at the Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative party conferences calling for a clampdown on the machines.

Adverts from the “Campaign for Fairer Gambling” read: “Pull the plug on bookmakers’ addictive roulette machines”, asking: “Which side is your party on? The bookmakers’, or society’s?”.

The MPs’ gaming committee has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority over what it sees as a highly “subjective” campaign in which Mr Webb persistently portrays opinions as fact.

A letter, signed by Conservative MP Philip Davies, co-chairman of the 20-strong committee, complains that Mr Webb’s adverts present information that is “without objective substantation, factually inaccurate, denigratory, omits material information and expresses subjective opinion as if these are objective claims”. The letter was sent earlier this month.

The campaign by Mr Webb, who is a top 20 Lib Dem donor, having given the party £25,000 in the past 13 months, comes at a sensitive time for the bookies.

Ministers are expected to announce a review within weeks of the evidence relating to problem gambling and betting machines, in particular – the takings from which could this year overtake the traditional over-the-counter businesses at William Hill and Ladbrokes. Don Foster, the Lib Dem communities minister, used the party’s conference in September to echo Mr Webb’s calls for maximum stakes to be cut from £100 to £2. Labour is also looking at ways to tighten the rules on opening new betting shops to restrict machine growth.

While the MPs on the gaming committee accept there is a legitimate debate over the machines, they are aghast at some of the claims made by Mr Webb.

Their complaint to the ASA argues that he has provided no evidence for claiming there are “thousands of families who fall foul of FOBT addiction each year” or that: “The reason so many new betting shops are opening up on our high streets is to offer more FOBTs on which you can bet up to £10 nearly every 20 seconds.”

Mr Davies points out that the Gambling Commission’s latest prevalence survey shows that between 2007 and 2010 the percentage of people gambling on FOBTs has only risen from 3pc to 4pc, while problem gamblers playing on such machines “went down by half a percentage point”.

Senior bookmaking sources also point to the alleged “hypocrisy” of Mr Webb. He is the founder of casino games developer Prime Table Games, which he sold in October last year to the Las Vegas-based Galaxy Gaming for $23m (£14.5m). Mr Webb and his partner Hannah O’Donnell took the payment as $800,000 in Galaxy shares and the rest in two promissory notes.

Asked if he was campaigning against the bookies to protect his interests in the casino industry, Mr Webb said that was a “complete red herring”, adding: “Over 90pc of the business of FOBTs is on roulette. I’ve never invented roulette games so I have no interests in roulette. So that argument’s a fallacy.”

He admitted, however: “Over the years everyone involved in gambling has profited in some way from addictive gamblers. I have retired. I want to put something back. The fact that I have benefited from addictive gambling doesn’t mean that some forms of gambling are not more addictive than others.”

Asked at the Lib Dem conference if his policy was being influenced by Mr Webb, Mr Foster said: “I’ve met Derek about three times in my life. If there’s anybody who insinuates that his contributions to the party influences what I am doing, I fear they would be in trouble. I first raised this issue in the passage of the Gambling Act in 2005.”